Barclays, UniCredit Bankers Should Be Tried, Prosecutor Says

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Former UniCredit SpA Chief Executive
Officer Alessandro Profumo is among 20 UniCredit and Barclays
Plc executives facing fraud charges in a tax-evasion probe led
by a Milan prosecutor, according to court documents.

Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo asked a court in the city to put
the 20 individuals on trial for fraudulent representation in
relation to an international investment plan known as Brontos,
he said in a court filing today. A judge will rule on the
prosecutor’s request at a later date.

UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank, used the tax vehicle to
increase the bank’s “economic benefits,” Profumo said at the
company’s annual meeting in April 2010. Prosecutors have been
investigating Brontos since last year when they seized 246
million euros ($321 million) in bank assets.

Profumo, 54, said in a statement today that he welcomes the
chance to be heard in court and he is convinced he acted
correctly. He stepped down as UniCredit CEO in September 2010.

UniCredit “reaffirms its belief” that both the bank and
its current and former executives and employees acted correctly
and properly, the lender said in a statement. A spokesman for
Barclays in London declined to comment.

Brontos was conceived to mask interest on a deposit account
into dividends earned on fictitious securities, Robledo has said
in court documents. Interest earned on deposits is taxed in full
while dividends are taxed at 5 percent.

UniCredit Appeal

UniCredit in a November appeal won the return of the assets
that were seized as part of the probe, according to court
documents. UniCredit “remains convinced that both it and its
employees acted correctly,” the Milan-based lender said in an
October statement.

Barclays used a Luxembourg unit to issue Turkish-lira
securities that were purchased by its Milan branch, Robledo said
in court documents. With a series of transactions involving
Barclays’s London branch and the use of currency swaps, Barclays
allegedly enabled UniCredit to earn interest of about 20 percent
in 2007, or five times the amount it could have earned on the
interbank market at the time.

Vittorio Ogliengo, UniCredit’s co-head of financing and
advisory, and Barclays bankers Rupak Chandra and Stefano Filippi
are among those who may go to trial, court documents show.
Ogliengo, Chandra and Filippi didn’t return e-mails seeking
comment.